THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS 151 



often remarked as the one in the parish resorted 

 to by these birds, and the very time that was in the 

 height of the breeding season. But what cared 

 he for that ? " This was by no means the only 

 occasion when he interfered in this kind of way ; 

 indeed, it is not too much to say that it was im- 

 possible for him not to interfere whenever any act 

 of cruelty came before his notice. 



To those who knew anything of what went on 

 along our coast, it was evident in the course of a 

 year or two that the close time as laid down in 

 the Act was by no means a sufficient protection to 

 the birds, although it had worked untold good for 

 them. One or two species of the Herring-Gull, 

 together with Cormorant, for instance, returned to 

 breed at Flamborough Head, which they had not 

 done for years, though the former was once very 

 abundant there. 



For several years prior to 1874 a policeman had 

 been appointed to take down the number of 

 persons found shooting sea-birds about Flam- 

 borough and Speeton ; it was ascertained that in 

 the first two weeks only of August 1874 eighty- 

 nine persons were stopped by the said officer, 

 and of these, twenty did not carry the ordinary 

 gun license. At Flamborough alone three hundred 

 and thirty-six birds were brought on shore in that 

 short time, and the number destroyed altogether 

 was, at the lowest computation, upwards of a 

 thousand. This was stated by Mr. Morris in a 

 letter he wrote to the Times on October 26, 1874. 



